Zuma threatens legal action against ANC, claims his expulsion was illegal

As the ANC celebrates its 113th birthday, expelled former ANC president and now MK Party leader Jacob Zuma seeks to dampen the mood by pursuing legal action against his former party, claiming his membership was terminated illegally. 

In a letter sent to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula by Zuma's legal counsel on Wednesday morning, the former president threatens to take legal steps should the ANC fail to reverse its decision to expel him before January 31. 

Zuma demands that he be furnished with a reasoned ruling by its national disciplinary committee and its appeals bodies which found against him, calling for full records of its proceedings, including all outstanding documents and correspondence. 

“Failure to comply on or before January 31 will result in our client taking all the legal steps necessary to vindicate, inter alia, his violated rights in respect of all the afore going issues, without any further notice to the ANC. Such steps may entail approaching the courts for appropriate relief, including seeking an order for the immediate reinstatement of President Zuma’s membership of the ANC, and punitive costs,” the letter says.

Zuma was expelled from the party and the decision withheld by the ANC's disciplinary appeals body after he announced he was endorsing the MK Party and campaigned for it during the elections. 

The MK Party would go on to obliterate the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and ensure its electoral defeat nationally, losing its majority after 30 years.

Zuma has maintained he remains a member of the ANC and that he established the MK Party to save the ANC. He has also taken issue with his successor President Cyril Ramaphosa, who became his arch-enemy in recent years. 

Zuma's lawyers argue that his expulsion was illegal and/or in breach of both the ANC constitution and/or the constitution of South Africa for various grounds including but not limited to:

• the failure and/or refusal of the ANC to accede to the requirement to hold the disciplinary process and/or the appeal hearing physically;
• the failure and/or refusal to hold the process in public; and
• the failure and/or refusal to postpone the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) hearing when it was legally bound to do so. 

Zuma also claims that the ANC failed to properly convene a pre-hearing on mutually convenient dates.

He takes aim at Mbalula, claiming the ANC failed and/or refused to deal with and repudiate his “intimidating, victimising and hurling gratuitous insults” aimed at Tony Yengeni, who represented Zuma during his disciplinary hearings.

“Mr Mbalula also unduly interfered with the independent and current decision of the NDC to hold a physical hearing. The victimisation of Mr Yengeni continues to date, with the obvious aim of depriving president Zuma his rights contained in the ANC constitution and his political rights enshrined in the constitution of South Africa.”

Mbalula announced that disciplinary proceedings had been instituted against Yengeni after his social media posts critiquing the ANC's top leadership. 

Zuma claims the ANC failed to grant him an opportunity to lead evidence in mitigation and refused to entertain the grounds of appeal. 

“Most importantly, the inconsistent treatment given to president Zuma by the ANC compared to others who had acted no differently from him, for example certain leaders who were associated with COPE and/or the SACP in both past and present election cycles.”

This comes as the ANC celebrates its 113th birthday in Cape Town this week. Ramaphosa, Mbalula and the rest of the ANC's top brass are expected to traverse the province for its traditional cake-cutting ceremony.